Day 5

Today (Monday) was a better day.

I stood three times without fainting, I move to solid food at lunch and I left the attention-intensive post surgery room at supper.  I now have a private room (the upgrade was $220 per day and I signed NO but I got very lucky and they bumped me for free!).

My ass is sore. In University I rode my motorcycle from Ottawa to the Yukon six days straight.  This is harder. There is very little respite for my ass but last night I was able to sleep on my side. Tomorrow I'll try walking.

After five days, I still haven't looked below my waist but I think I'm ready to tomorrow.

My surgeon hopes to release me around the 7 or 8 day mark even though my walking is 4 days behind schedule [Wife's Note: 2 days behind schedule]  [Husband's Note: Even though I was on the morphine drip, I showed Erinn how to count on her fingers.  She agreed I was right.  4 days.]  He's happy my bowels are coming back to life.

I've also just washed my hair. The night nurse brought me a shower cap that she took out of the microwave and I scrubbed that into my hair. It had some moisture in it and I had to lightly dry my hair after.  All done in my bed.  Pretty neat.  I wonder if the astronauts use it.

The Gory Details:

The surgery was pretty involving and I have a scar from my belleybutton down to my pubic bone and a holesaw was used left of my bellybutton for the colostomy.  I think it was a Dewalt.  On the rear I have a much smaller scar and associated stitching.  No wonder they left me on the epidural for 3 days.

Today I had full feeling in my legs and I was able to stand with help for a few minutes at a time.  Similar to when I was sitting upright on the edge of the bed, it was a laboured process where my head was extremely faint and my breathing constricted.  I wanted to pass out.

I have an IV drip piped into my arm, the morphine pain drip medication goes in the same place, a blood drainage bottle from the incision behind [Wife's Note: puss drainage not blood] and a catheter.  The catheter is useful as I never have to get out of bed to urinate but tomorrow I'll ask to have it removed.  That's four hoses.  Right after surgery I was on oxygen, I had the epidural in my spine for three days and the toe cable for 3.5 days.  That's seven hoses.  I achieve small amounts of freedom with every hose removal.